Of Hearts and Shells: Queen Takes Rook
by ravenshell
Summary: Karai is out to restore her honor... Can she manage to do it without killing anyone like Leo asks? Companion piece to OHAS: 50 Shades of Green. A bit of Leorai.


Disclaimer: All TMNT characters belong to their creators. This fic is purely for entertainment; I receive no monies for publishing it.

A/N: This is a companion piece to my larger story, OHAS: 50 Shades of Green, which can be found in full on (The first two chapters of 50 Shades will be posted on this site as a teaser). This fic sews up a little plot hole in 50 Shades (because I somehow managed to get every single building mixed up, and this was the easiest way around it. *lol*).  
Hope you enjoy, and please leave me a review!

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

_-Emo Philips _

Life is not always like chess. Just because you have the king surrounded, don't think he is not capable of hurting you.

_-Ron Livingston _

***

She stared out on the roof of the church where her life had changed so drastically. Not so much as the mutation itself, but learning of the utter betrayal of her fath—no, _step_father. Destroying her mother, taking her from her real father, training her to one day kill Hamato Yoshi in his quest for vengeance… She had been too close to see the design, but in taking a step backward, she could see the threads of Shredder's plan were the work of a madman. She had been too close to free herself from this tapestry of insanity while she could.

And when she had turned on him, he'd imprisoned her, used her as bait, hung her over a vat of mutagen. Leo had tried to stop her from going back, then had come to rescue her, but then Shredder—

_His_ thirst for vengeance, and _she_ suffered.

Mutation had been the most pain she had ever endured, every cell in her body ripping apart and re-forming, her legs twisting and melding together, her hands becoming the heads of snakes, her face, that of a viper. Even her thoughts were transformed: upon waking, all she knew was instinctual: _Strike! Kill! Eat! _And then her prey had called her name: _Miwa! Daughter… please!_

It was a name she had known for a very short while, but she had come to regard it as her own: the name given to her by her true father. It had been enough to drag a part of her conscious mind out of the miasma of instinctual drives, enough to realize… enough to know to flee before she killed him. And so she had fled, striking at all who threatened her escape, unable to tell the difference between friend or foe.

Her full mind returned to her in time. With proper concentration, she could even—somehow—regain human shape for a short time. It was an unpleasant feeling, but it would serve for blending in with normal people, as long as she could get away quickly when she felt herself reverting back. It was merely a guise of her human form, a mask to wear for normal human dealings, and a skill she had to practice even to hold it in place for a few minutes.

For now, she had reverted to her serpent body, which meant having to hide behind the balustrade of the building she lay on. Her white scales shone like moonlight, and that was a definite disadvantage when trying to camouflage oneself in the dark. It wasn't likely that Shredder was staring back at her from the church he'd made into his headquarters, but you never knew… masters such as Shredder had developed uncanny powers of perception. It wouldn't surprise her that he knew her eyes were seeking him. But she would be surprised if he didn't pick up on the sheer amount of hatred she was directing toward him, wherever he was, because she felt as though she was overflowing with it. One day, somehow, she would find a way to strike at the Foot Clan master and destroy him.

She was normally one to strike out of passion, immediately, without any exact plan, counting on her skills to get her through any situation, but that was not her stepfather's way. He was more cold and calculating. He would bait his target and let them come to him. Thus she was certain he was not actively hunting for her… however, if she turned up on his doorstep, or, say, the building across the street, he might try to capture her. He, of course, had no knowledge that she had regained her senses… It might not matter to him, either. If he had her, sentient or not, he would cage her and try to use her against Splinter one way or another: to lure him in, or to trigger her into killing the rat-mutant for him. She had no intention of being party to either, so that meant playing the game the way Oroku Saki played… better, in fact: cold, calculated, and planned to the finest detail.

At the moment, that meant laying low, not letting herself get spotted while she spied on her stepfather.

Whisper-light footfalls sounded behind her. "Karai…"

She slithered away from the edge of the building. "Leeeooooo…" Ugh, it was so hard to talk normally through this mouth… She faced him, coiling, ready to spring. He gave her a wry grin, tapping the tips of his katanas together.

She launched herself at him, striking at him with the barbed end of her tail. He blocked her attacks, with the side of one blade, then the other, then with both crossed. She feinted with her tail, making it look as though she was going for another stab, but instead whipped it around his legs and coiled it tightly, pulling his feet out from under him. He fell backwards onto his shell with a thud. The rest of her body coiled around him.

"Too sssslow, Leeeooo," she hissed at him, smirking as she let him up. He returned the grin with a lopsided one of his own.

"You've kind of got me at a disadvantage, you know… I don't want to hurt you when you don't have anything to defend with."

Karai gave a dismissive flip of her head. "I'vvvve got ssscalessss… Thoszze should be armor enouffgh."

"Oh?" Leonardo mocked, jabbing her with the point of a katana behind his back.

"Yowch!" she yelped, rubbing her hip with the back of the snake head that had replaced her hand as a tiny bead of blood formed there. "All right, you'vvve made your point… literally…" she grumbled, loosing her coils to let him up.

"Still searching for a chink in Shredder's armor?" he asked, seating himself on the rooftop beside her.

She didn't answer, looking back to the tower-like church building. "Thhere hasss to be a way… ssssome way I can get him alone…"

"You're planning on going one-on-one with him?" He sounded worried.

"He raiszzed me to be an assssasssin ssincsse I waszz thhree yearszz old… taught me all I know! Now he'll reap what he sssowed!"

The mutant turtle gazed at her steadily. "But has he taught you all _he_ knows?" he queried, echoing the words of his own master.

Karai hesitated. "…Yesss! Of courssse he haszz! Why wouldn't—"

"Are you sure? You're absolutely positive he doesn't have an ace up his sleeve, some trick he hasn't taught you? Something he could use to take you down because you weren't expecting it?"

She hissed at him in annoyance. "Evvven iff he doeszz, I ssstill havvve to try!"

"Karai! He'll kill you!"

"Not ifff I kill him fffirssst!" she insisted.

"Do you really think you can?"

"I jussst told you, I—"

He shook his head. "I don't mean, do you think you can get past his defenses. I mean, do you really think you can go through with killing the man who raised you? And if you do, do you think you can live with killing someone, even someone as despicable as Shredder, for the rest of your life?"

"Leeeooo…" she growled at him, "sssstop withh thhe white knight routine! I do _not_ need thhisss right now…"

She moved to turn away from him, but he grabbed her by the shoulders, spinning her back to face him. "I think you do! Because no matter what you're feeling about it right now, _I_ don't want you to have to live with that on your conscience!"

"This isn't about my conscience! It's about restoring my honor!"

"What, by killing the person who wronged you?! The way _he_ would?! Is that your idea of what honor is? Do you think you can just bump him off and the honor points will pop out, and you can go on your merry way without a second thought?"

She gave him a shove with the backs of her snake-headed hands and slithered halfway across the roof away from him, slid back and forth across it in a pacing motion, then rounded on him to shout, "Rrrrgh! You're infffuriating!"

He smirked. "Only when I'm right. Which is most of the time, granted…"

She advanced on him, adding, "You're inssssufffferable!" in a lower, but no less aggravated tone.

He crossed his arms smugly. "So my brothers keep telling me, in more vulgar terms…"

"You are ssssuchh a fffool!" she hissed in his face.

"Hmph," he snorted, smirk remaining on his face. "I know you only keep me around for your amusement. But it doesn't make me wrong."

She glared daggers at him, inches away. "I am gonna wipe thhat grin offff your fffaccce…"

"Oh, you will?" he challenged, pulling her in with an arm around her back.

Her head shot forward at him. He leaned forward to meet her, locking his beak around the sides of her serpentine mouth, avoiding her fangs. Her tongue flicked into his mouth. She pressed her mouth against him relentlessly as her body curled around his. The passion in their kiss equaled that of her hatred for her former father. He shifted her higher, taking the full weight of her on himself. She pushed downward against him, exploring his mouth with her forked tongue.

Minutes later, they parted lips at last, both breathing heavily. They stared deeply into each other's eyes. It was a look of unfulfilled desire, but also one that conveyed how deeply each cared for the other.

"I don't want to lose you," he told her as she uncoiled herself from him. "There must be another way to regain your honor that doesn't involve you sacrificing yourself to Shredder."

She stared out over the rooftop at the church again. A thought struck her. "Thhhere iszz," she mused, but said nothing further about it, calculating each move of her new plan in her head. Casually, as if changing the subject, she asked in a voice laced with hope, "Will you and your brothherszz be patrolling in thhisss area tomorrow night, ssso maybe we can 'run into eachhh othhher'?"

Leo gave her a wide, affectionate smile. "I think I can arrange it so we're within a few blocks of here at about ten o'clock, if you 'just happened to be around.'"

She gave him a coy hint of a grin and turned her back on him, studying the church with renewed vigor.

He didn't make a sound as he left, but she knew he had gone. She sighed wistfully. She adored Leo. Leo had a lot of heart. Leo was loyal, strong, a good fighter, and incredibly naïve. He was always such a willing puppet, and he always let her pull his strings so very easily…

In any case, he would be where she needed him to be the following evening.

She didn't have time to dwell on him. She had much to prepare. And she would need a sword.

In actuality, the sword was easier to acquire than some of the more mundane items she needed. It was one that she had once offered to Leonardo if he helped her steal it. He'd turned her down; she hadn't known what a goody-two-shoes he was at the time. Stealing it on her own wouldn't have been any fun back then, and really, it was for the excitement of doing something bad. Now she needed it for her purpose, though, and she didn't have time to dally, so she had simply smashed the glass and grabbed it, letting the alarms blare as she leapt away into the shadows.

The tricky bit had been trying to hold her human guise up while she shopped around a drugstore the following day. Twice, she had needed to retreat to the restroom as she began to revert to her serpent form. In all, she ended up buying (with money from a wallet she'd swiped off a man on the street… Leo would _not_ have approved) a strange mishmash of things: a box of large wooden matches, a bottle of very pungent cologne, a half-dozen eggs, a roll of duct tape, two wooden rulers, a messenger-bag, and a packet of wax. She returned in the evening and also purchased a large block of ice.

A couple other items, she scavenged, slicing a pair of sneakers down from a telephone wire with her new katana (well, new to her… it _was_ an antique), and tearing a tar-paper shingle from a rooftop.

She busted the lock on an old door on the church's rear side that looked like it had been sealed off for years. She doubted that Shredder even knew about its existence. With the utmost of care, she pried it open, careful not to let the hinges squeak as she entered. It opened onto a short flight of stairs leading down to the basement level. _Probably an old access for acolytes or nuns…_ Karai mused.

She heard what sounded like Bradford and Xever sparring on the middle level. Good; they wouldn't hear the whisper of her body slithering across the floor.

Karai had to wonder whose idea it had been to install gas-powered torches in the former church to add to its Medieval semblance. Not only were they an interesting light source for the basement level, they were easily extinguishable via a number of control knobs in a small inset in the wall. She turned them all off.

As the dungeon level went dark, she heard a voice. "Who'szzzz there?" it buzzed with a measure of irritation. "If that'szzz you again Xevvvver—"

She launched herself in the direction of the voice. As Baxter turned a corner from the alcove where he had set up his new makeshift lab, she seized him, constricting him in her coils and squeezing most of the air out of him, at the same time, raising her blade to his throat.

"Karai!" he exclaimed, with the small amount of air left in his lungs. He cowered in her grip. "It waszzzn't me! Ssshredder… he made me…"

She gave him another crushing squeeze, silencing him by depriving him of air. "I am not here for you," she hissed lowly. "Be elssssewhere thhisss night!" She uncoiled and lowered the katana.

"Nnnnno objectionszzz!" the fly mutant buzzed in return. He flew awkwardly up to the ceiling and clung to it. She followed, poised to strike at him with her sword if he made any move to alert the others, but he crawled purposefully around the wall toward the large, arched double doors, opened one, and slipped out.

She breathed a sigh of relief and retreated into the darkness of the basement. She had more business there to attend to before alerting Shredder to her presence. After searching a few remote closets in the lower level, she finally came across what she was looking for: the building's water heater. She turned the pilot light down on it until it finally snuffed out. Then she turned it up full blast. Noxious-smelling gas hissed out. She returned to the control panel for the torches and likewise turned them up fully, letting the gas flow freely. And, just in case, she popped the knobs off with the fangs of one of her snake-headed hands, dropping them into her bag.

This done, she left the area for clearer air, seeking a suitable place to set up her device. She wished the church had been a little more closed-off; there was a chance that as the gas rose, Shredder's mutant servants would catch scent of it, and worse, if it was too diffuse, it wouldn't catch when she needed it to.

Going up to the next level was risky, but then, so was setting up her little Rube-Goldberg machine where it wouldn't contact the gas. The large hall was filled with dozens of Foot robots, all standing motionless. Though touching them wouldn't activate them, Karai edged leerily around them. A glance around the walls yielded a spot that would suffice: one of two small shelves on the back wall, intended for high flower arrangements, and in the opposite corner, a stack of wooden chairs. She stacked one chair atop another beside the vase-holder, then reached into her messenger bag. From it, she pulled the two sneakers. One had the roofing shingle strapped around the front. The other had been taped to the ends of the pair of rulers with the heel sticking out over the end, and an array of matches had been attached to the underside of the heel. Karai set the shingle-clad shoe on the seat of the chair, then touched the match heads to the shingle, then tilted the rulers upward onto the shelf. Holding it in place, she reached into her satchel again, producing a large chunk of the block of ice; she had quartered it, knowing the full block wouldn't melt fast enough for her purposes. It started to drip immediately; the day had been a scorcher, the humid night holding in the day's heat. She hoped she had estimated right… too much or too little, either could sink her plan.

She sighed, steeling herself. The board was all set up. Now it was time to set the pieces in motion.

She stashed her sword next to a dumpster around the back of the building,. She needed to look wild for this, and wild, mindless serpents didn't wield stolen antique swords. She also left the bag behind, but took the last remaining contents, her six specially-prepared eggs, which she managed to stuff into one of her viper-headed hands, leaving the other free. Shifting to her human guise, she climbed the fire escape on the building next door and leapt across to the church's roof. She circled the glass enclosure, peering inside. There, sitting on his throne, was her step-father. Good… Maybe there was a chance she would get to kill him anyway. She threw herself haphazardly against the glass screeching. She bit and clawed at it, leaving long scratch marks, and spat venom at it as if she didn't know what to do with this strange barrier. Shredder stood, staring at her for a moment in awe, then shouting and making motions at his henchmen.

Shredder felt someone watching him seconds before the thump on the window behind him, followed by the squealing of claws against glass. He leapt to his feet, expecting an attack—albeit, if it was an attack, it was a clumsy one. Instead, he was shocked to see his daughter, or rather, the thing that had been his daughter, flinging itself at the multi-paned glass as if trying to reach him and being foiled by its own lack of wits. "Karai!" he exclaimed with a measure of sorrow. "You three!" he shouted to the mutants sparring on the next level down. The necrotic wolf, the tiger mutant, and the robot-legged fish ran to their master immediately, following his gaze to the roof.

"It's Karai!" Rahzar exclaimed.

Tiger Claw tracked her motions as she continued to attack the glass with hissing screeches. "Completely mindless… yet how did she find her way here? Perhaps she remembers her grudge against you…"

"Or she thought she'd found an easy meal," the wolf countered.

"Oh Master, your poor daughter…" Fishface mourned.

The room became silent for a moment as the creature's attacks continued. "Sir, your orders?" Rahzar prompted.

Shredder continued staring at the fearsome mutant, its scales gleaming white in the moonlight. "Capture her! I want her brought back alive! Unharmed, if possible."

The three mutants headed for the roof access, but as they did, the snake creature ceased her onslaught, seemingly spooked by the new arrivals. Shredder mourned to himself, pressing a hand against the glass. "Oh, daughter… we will find a way of helping you… Please do not fight them…"

"How can something that can only slither launch itself across a rooftop?!" Rahzar puffed. They had been chasing the viper mutant for nearly two miles, and she showed no sign of slowing.

"Just keep going!" Fishface called to him. "You know how pissed off the head honcho gets when we come back empty-handed!"

"…Says the guy with robot legs doing all the running for him!" the wolf panted.

"Look!" Tiger Claw rumbled, pointing ahead of them. He fired off three shots from his ice gun, missing Karai as she dropped off the roof. The powerful mutant increased his stride, reaching the edge of the building and looking down. Karai, waiting for him spat venom into his good eye.

The tiger backed away from the edge of the building, roaring in pain.

The other two skidded to a stop, staring at their screaming comrade. Rahzar looked around them hurriedly. "There!" He pointed to a water tower on top of the building. He threw a set of his claws into the side of it, making it spring a leak. "You help him," he ordered Fishface. "I'll keep tracking Karai. Catch up with me when you're done."

"Keep your eyes shielded!" Fishface advised as he guided the tiger toward the stream of water to wash out his eye. The wolf mutant carefully looked over the balustrade.

The viper was nowhere to be seen, but Rahzar could smell her, and dropped to the ground, following her scent through the back alleys. There, she'd gone around that corner! Her scent was strong! He rounded the corner and—SPLAT! Something cracked against the end of his nose, spraying pungent liquid all over him. He was pelted with several of the perfume eggs, and the odor overwhelmed his senses completely. He whimpered, trying to wipe the hideous, eye- and nose-burning cologne out of his delicate olfactory.

Spluttering and whining, he climbed back to the rooftops, where Tiger Claw and Xever were just catching up. Tiger Claw coughed and backed away from the wolf mutant as soon as he caught a whiff of him, covering his nose with both paws. The strong scent didn't seem to bother Xever as much, though. "Niiice cologne, papi! You got a hot date tonight?" he teased.

"Just get after her! She's smarter than we thought!" he snapped back, eyes and nose streaming.

"Stay well behind me," Tiger Claw demanded at Rahzar. "I cannot smell anything but you!" Rahzar growled, but complied, following several feet behind. "Further!" the big cat growled, waving him off.

The zombie wolf huffed, crossing to the opposite side of the roof. "Is this good?"

"Further!" the tiger repeated as he dropped off the roof to try to pick up Karai's scent. Without the stink of Rahzar clouding his nose, he picked up the scent. "She's doubled back!" He continued sniffing after her for a couple of blocks, until he suddenly had to clap his paws over his nose again, running into another scent-bomb, splattered on the pavement.

She had hoped that masking her scent would lose them, but no such luck. She shifted to her human guise and ran as fast and as far as she could, out of sight of the mutants, on the main street. Her transformation didn't last as long as she had hoped; even concentrating her hardest, it barely lasted more than five minutes before she had to duck back into an alleyway and climb back to the roofs. The other mutants spotted her almost immediately, Fishface now in the lead of the chase, and only a couple of blocks away. And she, of course, shining like the moon, stood out so much she may as well have had a neon sign pointing directly to her.

Oh well… This was the reason she'd coaxed Leo and his brothers into position, as her plan B. And there they were, dependable as ever. Leonardo smiled brightly as she appeared, but his grin faded quickly into a concerned grimace as she charged toward the four turtles.

"Hi guyssss! Could you keep thhe menagzzhherie occupied fffor me fffor a little while?" she asked hurriedly, only slowing for a moment. She didn't wait for an answer; she knew Leo, at least, would keep Shredder's freak squad at bay for her. And Raph… well, Raph didn't care for her, but he did love a fight. The other two weren't exactly useless in a battle either… They wouldn't have been Karai's first picks, but they could hold their own. And they didn't know it, but they didn't have to beat the hench-mutants, just keep them busy for a few more minutes… just so they didn't return to their base…

Karai dropped to the ground once more, switching forms and dashing toward the church. Her human legs _did_ afford her more speed, though the transformation weakened her a bit, and it was an unpleasant transition every single time.

She resumed her mutant form and grabbed the antique katana from its hiding place, then ascended the fire escape on the facing building, leaping to the church's roof. She approached the skylight warily, her confidence wavering for a moment. If she had mistimed the device, guessed the melting time wrong, she might be about to get a faceful of glass and flame.

She peered through the glass carefully. Shredder still sat on his throne. Had the gas not risen this far? Or had he simply not smelled it? Had he turned it off, found her device? Or perhaps he had passed out—

His eye snapped sideways to meet hers. Definitely not the latter, then. She raised the sword before her, beckoning to him with her other snake-headed hand in challenge. His eyes narrowed at her. Then he rose and dashed for the roof access door.

She ducked behind one of the pointed decorations on the roof. If her little bomb went off, she wanted as much cover as she could get.

Oroku Saki approached her, the access door shutting behind him. "Daughter…"

She met his eyes with a steely, reptilian glare. "Sssstepffathhherrr."

"Quite the spectacle you caused earlier. Like a child having a tantrum. Clearly, you were not caught by those I sent after you."

She drew herself up as high as she could on her tail. "Thhissss isszz a privvvate matter. I couldn't havvve thhem interfffering."

He stared her down, eyeing the katana and her posture. "You have not come to let us help you, not to rejoin the Foot, though you know you would be welcomed … Clearly you intend a fight."

She bobbed her head once, not betraying her true purpose, though she was sure her time was running very thin. _Hurry UP!_ she thought desperately. _Get off the roof!_ Yet, she couldn't waver… couldn't let him suspect… "I will havvve my honor!"

The Shredder shook his head. "So be it, foolish child." He motioned for her to attack. She charged, holding her blade low in an attempt to pierce his side. He swatted the sword away with an arm. "Once again, you think you have a chance of besting me with what I myself have taught you," he mocked as she aimed strike after strike at him, catching each on his tekko gaki and throwing her back. "One would think I had taught you more wisdom than to challenge your master!"

She was losing ground against him, her snakelike body being shoved across the rooftop inches at a time while she continued her onslaught. _Good… _she thought. _Just a little further…_

On her next swing, he caught her katana between the tines of his daggers. With a strong twist of his wrists, he snapped the blade apart. Karai blinked as the upper two thirds of her weapon clattered to the rooftop. Sparing a glance at the stub left in her hand, she tossed it away. "Sssstupid antique…" she swore at it, backing toward the edge of the building. She gritted her fangs, simultaneously worried that her device was about to go off, and that it wouldn't. It should have, by this time…

Her stepfather was unrelenting in his attack; it made no matter to him if she was armed or not… for the offense of challenging him, he would cut her down and punish her. Left with only her natural weapons (for as natural as mutations could be), she swung her viper-headed hands at him. She felt one of the fangs on her left hand snap as he blocked it with a lightning-fast fan-kick. She spat venom at him, but he shielded his face from it and it dripped ineffectively off his arm-guard. She backed further, felt the edge of the building, and launched herself off of it toward the building where she had spent so much time devising her plan against her stepfather. He wasn't going to let her escape that easily, leaping off the building after her.

Below, the block of ice, melting in the balmy summer evening heat, grew small enough that it no longer supported the weight of the sneaker. No longer counterweighted, the shoe fell, the array of matches simultaneously striking against the rough shingle…

The black tower exploded behind them, sending shards of stained glass in all directions, as well as a massive shockwave hurtling at them. It slammed Oroku Saki into the roof of Karai's spying outpost, which he was sent skidding across on his back, a look of utter shock and dismay showing in his eyes. He threw his arms across his face, protecting himself against the sudden rain of glass.

"Well, it'sss about t—YAAAH!" Karai managed as the mass of hot air hit her and carried her well past her intended landing spot, throwing her into the face of another brownstone building across the street. Wincing from the impact, glass hailing against her scales and the building, she twisted her body around, scrabbling for purchase on the bricks with her snake hands and getting none. "NO!" she cried, falling backward and away from the wall.

Time seemed to move in slow-motion as she fell. For all her plans, all her tricks, she wasn't going to survive this. She couldn't twist herself any way that would save her from a fall from such a height. She watched her barbed tail trailing out behind her like a pennant as she fell…

…and then someone caught her under the arms and her trajectory changed from straight down to an upward arc. She blinked in shock and turned her head, catching sight of green skin and the flapping ends of a blue mask. "Leo…" she breathed.

"Fancy meeting you here," he quipped at her, landing on another rooftop.

"What are you d—? How…?" she tried to ask as he set her down.

He smiled wryly. "You looked like you might have needed a white knight. Glad I left the fight when I did." He pulled his grapnel loose of a neighboring building and began winding the rope up. A great whining of twisting metal reached their ears, and both turned to look as the great clock on the front of the church, burning, pulled partially loose from its warping frame and tipped inward, nearly fell in, but then wedged stuck at a dangerous-looking angle. Sirens sounded, getting louder and louder until a number of fire engines and police cars converged on the scene to put out the blazing church.

"This was your idea of 'another way?' Grand arson?!" Leo demanded of her as they leapt across the rooftops together, putting some distance between themselves and the stunned Shredder.

She gave him a cocky smile in return. "Yeah, well… Sshhhredder iszz ssstill alivvve. I didn't kill anyone." She considered for a moment. "I sssupposzze I'm okay withh thhat."

The turtle shook his head. "Raph was right… you are totally insane! What if that explosion had killed innocent bystanders?!"

"Well, it didn't, ssso what are you ssso worried about?" she hissed back smoothly. "Relaxsss, Leo!"

"Karai!" he protested, but his complaints were muted as she caught his beak with her mouth, kissing him passionately. He relented, closing his eyes, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulder and back as she twined around him. She whipped her tail around his legs and pulled them out from under him, sending them both crashing to the rooftop. Leo barely grunted as he landed on his shell with her on top of him, but yelped and sat up quickly as something sliced his hand when he caressed the serpent-girl's side. She, too, looked up, alarmed. He plucked something from her scales, holding it up for both of them to see: a shard of blue stained glass. "I guess the scales _are_ pretty good armor…" he commented, then pulled her down to continue making out with her.

Rahzar, Fishface and Tiger Claw had their claws full with the turtles, who remained an obstacle despite the fact that the one in blue had suddenly cut and run, leaving the battle to his three brothers. The three assorted mutants fought hard, knowing Shredder's disappointment if they did not bring his daughter back would be severe, as would their punishment if they failed. They fought their hardest to shake the turtles off, but after their encounters with Karai, they were already a bit worse for the wear. Then came a massive explosion from a few blocks away, and a shockwave that knocked all six of them off their feet. A cloud of flame blossomed above the rooftops.

"That looked like a gas explosion!" Donnie exclaimed, recovering his bo.

"Was… was that Shredder's lair?" Raphael asked, leaping back to his feet ready to keep fighting, but awed by the huge ball of fire. By the looks on the faces of the other mutants, clearly, it had been. All three of them scrambled toward the burning building, abandoning the fight.

"Master Shredder!" Rahzar shouted as he leapt to the next roof.

"Boss!" Fish face echoed, following.

Tiger Claw seemed to debate leaving the fight, but eventually opted to leave as well, firing a volley of shots at the turtles as a parting gesture. "This is not over, reptiles!"

"Looks over to me," Mikey quipped as the tiger mutant ran to catch up with his fellows.

The three mutants converged on a high building overlooking the burning church, all wearing distraught looks. That was only to be expected; the lair, their erstwhile home, had just been destroyed. As firefighters fought the blaze down, Xever asked, "Do you think he made it?"

Bradford, paces away from the others and still reeking of his perfumed shower, shook his ragged head. "Master Shredder is many things, but fireproof isn't one of them…" he said mournfully.

After a moment of solemn silence, Tiger Claw sighed and turned to the others. "Where do we go? We must find cover before dawn."

A deep, cold, infuriated voice answered him. "You will go where I tell you to go." All spun around in surprise.

"Master!" Rahzar's tail wagged with uncontrolled abandon, like the dog he had mutated from. He genuflected before the ninja master. Xever, not to be outdone, followed suit.

The tiger, with a bit more dignity, clasped his paws, giving a respectful bow. "Our apologies, Master Shredder… we were unable to capture your cub—"

"I am well aware of that. Lucky for you, she came to me herself. But this does not change the fact that she infiltrated our lair. Had she desired, she would have killed us all in the blaze."

"Then, why didn't she?" Bradford queried.

"Perhaps the influence of my enemy, Hamato Yoshi, has reached her through her contact with the turtles. It has made her weak." Having said this, Shredder remained pensively silent.

"Where do we go, Jefe?" the fish mutant asked at length.

"Bradford, do you know of the old abandoned theater house south of here?"

"That place? The Orpheum? That's practically in the Projects…"

Shredder's eyes narrowed. "Then you had better get going. Keep an eye out for Stockman. Xever…"

"Boss?"

Shredder gave a disgusted sniff. "Be sure Bradford has a bath." The fish and tiger guffawed as Rahzar's ears drooped and his tail tucked under at the word 'bath.'

Baxter stared across the cityscape, hovering over the buildings to watch, the orange and black flame of the burning church at the center of his attention until the fire crew got the inferno under control and the flame was replaced with clouds of smoke. On the one hand, he exulted… he was free! He could leave! Shredder would never find him again, if he even lived through the explosion.

But on the other… His new lab in the church was destroyed, his notes on mutagen and retro-mutagen lost in the fire… all that progress, gone. And his access to more mutagen through Shredder's connections… If Shredder was dead, so were his alliances; no Shredder, no mutagen… no mutagen, no retro-mutagen. Baxter became fearful, hoping for his own sake that Shredder lived. If he was dead, all was lost. If he lived…

Had he thought he was free? An illusion! An illusion that disappeared like the smoke from the smoldering remains of the church. He would not be free until he devised a retro-mutagen for himself, and probably one for the other mutants under the Foot leader's employ. Even then, what was the likelihood that Shredder would let him go? No, certainly not free. He was a mere pawn.

"Stinkman!"

Baxter was so shocked at the voice, he stopped moving his wings and plummeted several feet before recovering. A pungent smell attacked his olfactory coming off Bradford in waves. He nearly choked at how cloying it was. "Nnnnice perfume," he dared to mock, out of Rahzar's reach. "Did you havvve to marinade in it?"

Bradford ignored him. "The church got blown up."

"I zzzsaw." He neglected to mention why he wasn't in the church himself. If they didn't know Karai had told him to get out, they couldn't go after him for not warning them, after all. "How?" he asked casually.

"Karai. Somehow she triggered an explosion," the necrotic wolf explained. "We're relocating. The old Orpheum. Master Shredder expects to see you there."

So he _was_ alive! Baxter's hope rekindled, bleak though his future under Shredder's foot seemed. He nodded to Rahzar in acknowledgement. "You'rrre walking there?" the fly buzzed.

"We failed to capture Karai like the master asked. This is probably punishment."

"Waszz the perfume part ofvvv it?"

The wolf mutant tore a brick out of the balustrade and threw it at Baxter, knocking the fly out of the air and onto a roof below. Baxter pushed himself back to his feet, dusting himself off. "It waszzz just a question…"

The serpent and the turtle lay on their sides, facing one another. He caressed her neck gently. "Well," he asked, "do you think your honor is restored now?"

Karai considered this and shook her head. "No. Not yet."

"No?!" Leo sounded shocked. "You just blew up Shredder's headquarters! That's not enough?"

She looked out toward the smoking remains of the building. "Shhhredder'sss empire iszz huge. World-wide. Thhiss? Thhiss'll only be a minor sssetback ffor him." She turned back to Leonardo with a crazily enthusiastic smile. "I want to shhhut him down completely!"

Leo stared at her, then sighed. "You're insane…"

"Look, I can do thhisss…" she said adamantly. "I know where he doeszz buszzinesss, I know all ofvv hiszz operationszz… I can utterly ruin him, and he'll nevvver sssee it coming! I can kick him right in the assssetsss."

The turtle rolled his eyes. "I should've just let you kill him… It would've been less trouble."

"I'm not assssking you to come," she snapped at him.

"But?" he continued for her.

The corner of her mouth turned up. "But, I suppose I wouldn't mind having my white knight around to back me up now and then…"

He smirked back at her. "But no more blowing things up!" he chastised. She knew he'd be there for her when she needed him. He always was. And she would move him wherever she needed him.


End file.
